Personalized learning within teacher education: A framework and guidelines

A key challenge for teacher education globally is to ‘equip all teachers for effective learning in the 21st century’ (OECD 2011). In Higher Education, as well asschooling, the ground isshifting, ‘quietly but steadily’, away from a teacher‐centred to a learner centred approach, through which educators increasingly ‘adapt their teaching in accordance with a more complex understandings of human learning’ (Bok 2006, p. 342). The learning paradigm is consistent with the view that, in an ever changing world, which requires creative minds, the best thing we can do for our students is to teach them ‘how to learn’ (Weimer 2002, p. 50). This shift from a teaching, to a learning, paradigm demands a new generation of aspiring teachers who are themselves, self‐directed learners. To achieve this, teacher education programmes need to facilitate student teachers to fully understand and experience the importance and transformative impact of personalised learning so that they, in turn, can help future students to be confident, reflective, autonomous learners. This paper describes the outcomes of an Erasmus + project2 to develop a Framework and Guidance for Personalized Learning within Teacher Education and to implement and test innovative personalised learning practices across teacher education institutions to promote creativity, critical thinking and the active participation of learners in taking responsibility for their own learning and achievement. The paper explores the theoretical and practice elements that together inform the concept of personalised learning. These insights are then used to develop a Framework for Personalized Learning within Teacher Education. In addition, the final chapter outlines pedagogical strategies to support the development of personalised learning that were tested during the project within the participating universities. The Framework and Guidelines are intended for use by to teacher educators and their students, as well as by teachers and studentsin schools, to support the on‐going shift towards a personalised learning and collaborative paradigm which forefronts learner agency and autonomy and encourageslearners of all agesto assume increased responsibility for their own learning and achievements.